Over the years, many efforts have been made to develop suitable packaging devices for bulky, relatively heavy and frequently fragile objects such as earthenware flower pots. Various types of boxes or cartons, particularly corrugated boxes or cartons, offer some degree of protection for the object when it is being shipped to a retail establishment and when being carried by the ultimate purchaser, but do not permit the object to be easily viewed at the retail establishment, are bulky and cumbersome to package and carry and use a relatively large amount of packaging material, resulting in the packaging device being relatively heavy and bulky to ship and store. Bags offer little protection for the object and are therefore not normally suited for shipment of the object from the place of manufacture to the place of retail distribution. They also offer little protection for the object when taken home by the ultimate purchaser. Other available packaging devices suffer from one or more of the various deficiencies described above.
A need therefore exists for a packaging device and for a method of packaging bulky, relatively heavy, fragile objects. The packaging device should use a minimum of material to minimize material, shipping and storage costs while still providing substantial protection for the object when shipped or carried. The device should also permit the object to be easily viewed in a retail establishment, provide adequate space for printing required material, should be easily stackable and should be easily carried by the ultimate purchaser with minimum additional weight and bulk. Finally, the packaging device and the method for the utilization thereof should be simple and inexpensive so that it may be installed at the factory where the object is manufactured for shipment to retail establishments or may be utilized by the retailer to package objects for customers.